Monte Cristo

Monte-Cristo #1-3

by Jordan Mechner, Mario Alberti (artist)

Sam Castillo embodies the blue-collar American dream — a young, successful contractor, engaged to his sweetheart at age 24, living a happy life… until three enemies conspire to frame him as a terrorist. Sent to a black-site federal prison, Sam befriends a brilliant, multi-lingual inmate who teaches him the ways of the world… and bestows upon him the key to a secret fortune. After 15 years of imprisonment, Sam’s daring escape puts him in a financial position to, at last, take revenge against those who betrayed him.

Alexandre Dumas’s classic tale of love, revenge, and redemption is reimagined and transposed to a post-9/11 America and today’s globalized world.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

224 pages, Hardcover

Published December 3, 2024

About the author

Jordan Mechner is an author, graphic novelist, video game designer, and screenwriter. He created Prince of Persia as a solo game developer in the 1980s, joined forces with Ubisoft to relaunch the series in 2003 with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and adapted it as a 2010 live-action film for Disney. Jordan's books include his game development journals The Making of Karateka and The Making of Prince of Persia, the graphic novels Templar (a New York Times bestseller) and Monte-Cristo. His games include Karateka and The Last Express. In 2017, he received the Pioneer Award from the International Game Developers Association. @jmechner on Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon and Twitter.

Reviews

[Patrick Frazier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thrilling, sprawling modern-day update of the classic. Glad I backed this one.

[Brad McKeehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great retelling of the classic Count of Monte Cristo in modern day graphic novel. Incredibly impressed with the way the author made the story fit in a modern post 9/11 setting that made sense. The art is gripping and I’m so glad I supported this book on kickstarter.

[Jp · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Count of Monte Cristo was a novel that I enjoyed and when I heard that Mechner was updating this for a modern era, I was excited to see what they were going to do. Alberti’s art brought a complex tale of revenge and humanity to life in a way that felt more than a sum of its parts.
I recommend highly.

[Jonathan Harbour · Rating 3 out of 5]

A modern rewrite of The Count of Monte Cristo in graphic novel format that is genuine to the source. Gets bogged down in a word salad of political machinations just like the original, which is not really a good thing. I am not intrigued enough by the book to reread it in order to grasp the whole plot because it's just not that interesting. the artwork is often confusing and unclear. feels rushed. which is not surprising from a Kickstarter book.

there is some beautiful artwork here. I would have much rather preferred that Jordan mechner take a modern approach to this without making it all about American politics and the FBI. that just really was not interesting to me. it's like a Tom Clancy novel. which is great if you love complicated political stories. but why American politics and the doj? corrupt American politicians? insider trading? that is so dull to me. low hanging fruit for a writer.

my biggest gripe with the writing is that this story could have taken place in the 1960s. there's nothing here that sets this in the current decade except mention of the Iraq war, etc. there is the use of a drone attack but even that is 20 year old tech. if I might use James Bond for a comparison, this is more like From Russia With Love when I was expecting Spectre. but that's a harsh criticism and I admit it. I guess I would just hoping for something new. it's a Dumas / Clancy collaboration.

it's definitely worth a read if you love graphic novels, but I just didn't love it.

[Mickey Bits · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Monte Cristo, Mechner and Alberti craft a story with all the elements of an epic saga. A man's life takes an unexpected left turn as he is double crossed by those close to them. This leads to tribulation, self-discovery, more unexpected turns, revenge, sweet revenge. Can he find it in his heart to forgive? You'll have to read it yourself.

As I was about 75% through the book, I asked myself, is it me, or is this plot hard to follow? There are so many twists and turns, details implied and alluded to. I understood the gist but the finer points were lost on me. Additionally, the illustrations are at times hard to follow. Alberti's "sketchbook" style and the darker pallet they use renders many of the illustrations hard to decipher? Some of the plot points are completely unbelievable, even for a story such as this. How are the jailers not going to notice a man missing from his own cell for years and years?

I did enjoy the story, though. The action sufficient and the plot itself fun to imagine. It's just those few elements that could have be thought through better to make this a 5-star book.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a cool project and the graphic novel format adds a lot of detail to this classic story. I did find the condensed nature of the story leaving some characters a little under-developed. The Count of Monte Cristo is also my favorite book of all time so I'm probably a little biased. Great fun to experience this story in a new way while still iterating on some of the relationships to help modernize the ideas.

[Chrysa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5*

[Bo Dixen Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A modern retelling of the Count of Monte Christo set in a world of corporate greed, political corruption and the war on terror.

This is a very zeitgeisty version of the story with solid art.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - Solid Adaptation, great artwork - just lacks a bit more dialogue and such.